Dell unveils new IoT solutions

28/08/18

Dell Technologies’ Edge and IoT Solutions Division is announcing new solutions and bundles to simplify deployment of secure, scalable solutions for edge computing and IoT use cases. With these solutions, Dell Technologies is combining tools from its broad portfolio with technology from Intel and partners in the Dell Technologies IoT Solutions Partner Program. This will drive workloads for computer vision – enabled by imaging sensors – and machine intelligence – characterised by structured telemetry from sensors and control systems. Dell Technologies has collaborated with Intel, who has helped advance these solutions with their computer vision and analytics technologies.

“Workloads and use cases for computer vision and machine intelligence require different combinations of tools, but the computing infrastructure elements are the same,” said Joyce Mullen, president, Global Channel, OEM and IOT Solutions at Dell Technologies. “Dell Technologies provides a scalable, secure, manageable and open infrastructure – spanning edge to cloud – so customers and partners can realise value today and build a foundation to support these workloads and case studies in the future.”

Cameras provide rich information about the physical world, but the deluge of video data creates too much data for humans to cost-effectively monitor for real-time decision making. Applying analytics, such as Artificial Intelligence, to these data streams automates powerful, actionable insights. Events driven by computer vision and analysed together with telemetry from machines – including data that imaging sensors cannot provide, such as voltage, current and pressure – results in even more powerful insights.

Because of rapid evolution in the IoT market and the fast pace of innovation required to stay competitive, many customers now require an ‘IT grade’ infrastructure. This should include a security-first perspective to support scalability, data diversity and the increasingly complex needs of connected devices.

By enabling computer vision with Dell Technologies IoT solutions, customers can more accurately, efficiently and effectively “see” relevant information pertaining to areas such as public safety, customer experience, and product inventory and quality. Surveillance is the first use case to which Dell Technologies has applied computer vision, so customers can more cost-effectively monitor events in the physical world and automate decision‐making.

The IoT Solution for Surveillance is specifically built to transform and simplify how surveillance technology is delivered with an easy to deploy and manage hyper-converged, software-defined solution. Available later this year to purchase as a package, the engineered, pre-integrated solution will provide a consistent foundation from edge to distributed core to cloud. It will also be ready to run on day one with customer data to speed the return on investment. The solution is currently available as a reference architecture to align systems and build a framework for computer vision learning and adoption for other use cases.

The Dell Technologies IoT Solution for Surveillance with its open architecture allows for customisation with immense choice of technology, purchasing and configuration. Additionally, it is flexible to adapt to changing technologies or industry regulations to meet data needs today and in the future. Dell EMC Surveillance Validation Lab tests hardware and ISV software solutions together in extreme simulations to ensure it will stand up in the real world. The built-in security measures include micro-segmentation (NSX-T) and the ability to push over-the-air (OTA) updates and security patches in real time to all surveillance devices from camera to cloud. It also will include holistic management capabilities across IT and operational technology (OT) concerns through a combination of VMware Pulse IoT Center and Software Defined Data Center.

The solution offers an automated, fault-tolerant approach to scaling from 300TB to 50PB+ on Dell EMC Elastic Cloud Storage for private, on-premise, off-premise or hybrid needs. High availability and zero data loss will be guaranteed with vSAN RAID 5/6 across flash and disk. Additionally, ESXi Enterprise Plus enables high availability and disaster recovery services.

Dell Technologies IoT Solutions Partner Program

The Dell Technologies IoT Solutions Partner Program is a multi-tiered program supporting technology and services partners from the edge through the full Dell Technologies solution stack. Through this program, Dell Technologies has identified several partners demonstrating strong use case focus and clear return on investment to create the new Dell Technologies IoT Connected Bundles. The bundles include sensors and licensed software from partners tailored for specific customer use cases, together with various combinations of Dell Technologies infrastructure spanning edge gateway, embedded PC and server hardware. This is in addition to complimentary software like VMware Pulse IoT Center for securing, managing and monitoring these solutions at scale.

Sold fully through the channel, IoT Connected Bundles are validated, market-proven solutions that channel partners can deliver to their customers as turnkey offerings. With these solution bundles, channel partners have a new value proposition to offer their customers, as well as a new potential revenue stream. With a clear, repeatable and accelerated path to return on investment, channel partners can enter the IoT market knowing the solution will work and deliver predictable results fast.

Over time, additional bundles will be available through further curation in the Dell Technologies IoT Solutions Partner Program.

The reference architecture for Dell Technologies IoT Solution for Surveillance is available today, and the engineered solution will be available in October 2018.

The IoT Connected Bundles for channel partners will be available in September 2018.